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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-14 Daily Xml
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NORTH ON TARGET

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:13): I want to speak today about what I think is a very important program run by the police in my electorate, but I want to say a few words about this morning's debate on Holden's because I was disappointed I did not get a chance to speak during that debate. I want to put on the record that I join with the member for Fisher in his comments about how disappointed he was at some of the behaviour in the chamber this morning. There was a lot of rhetoric, there was a lot of dubious history and there was quite a lot of laughter over what is such an important issue, and I hope some of the people directly affected in my electorate were listening.

The solution is obvious, and the solution was put forward by the Premier and both the Minister for Manufacturing and the Minister for Transport. The solution is simply to convince the commonwealth to commit to a $500 million co-investment package and ensure that Holden's invests in two new models. That is the immediate solution, and that is what those opposite are not committing: they are not committing to pressuring the commonwealth. I want to put on the record those few remarks.

What I actually want to speak about today is a program in my area, and in the area of the member for Ramsay, called North on Target. It is a drug education program of sorts. It is for year 6 students and it is run by SA Police. It is funded by at the moment by the Salisbury council. As a former police officer, I was interested to read about the program, and I met with Sergeant Chris Gill, the drug action team coordinator for Elizabeth who heads it up, and with Mick Schooley, who I know well. Other northern members will know Mick Schooley well. He works very well with kids and puts in a lot of hard work, as do a lot of police officers up there.

Sergeant Gill runs this 12-week course. It has a focus on building skills and self-confidence and increasing drug and alcohol awareness, but it does not focus on drugs as such. It focuses on assertiveness and confidence and, most importantly of all, on teaching kids to be peer leaders and peer educators and share their knowledge with other students. The students throughout the program—which is run on a voluntary capacity, largely, by the police—are empowered through discussion and role play to resist peer pressure and explore ways to say no, not just no to drugs but to be assertive in a general sense. I believe these skills will become valuable in many areas of their lives, especially as they become teenagers and young adults.

The group discussions focus on responsibility and the importance of being able to speak to adults, including police, if the need arises. There is only one module of 12 that actually talks about drugs and alcohol and so on, and the rest of it really is about important life skills and about passing those life skills on to their peers. They take them to various police sites as part of the program. It is not the most important part of the program but, as I heard last night, in fact, it is probably the part they most enjoy.

I was pleased to go along last night to the presentation of the awards to the kids who became peer educators who completed all 12 modules of this North on Target. Chris Gill was there. Mick Schooley, unfortunately, could not make it but it was chaired very ably by the deputy mayor, Chad Buchanan, out at Salisbury. These peer educators were from Paralowie Primary School and Lake Windemere Primary School, but I am hoping, through various discussions I am going to have with the councils, to roll it out into the City of Playford as well because I think it is a really important program.

As a former police officer, I think it is really sad that a lot of our youth nowadays sometimes have a pretty negative view of the police. Programs like these, as well as being important in their own right, are an important step in changing some of these perceptions of police, some of which are deeply ingrained and often generational. When students can work with the police in a fun and empowering way, only positives can come from it. The building of positive relationships between our young people and our police force is a vital step in tackling problems of antisocial behaviour and youth crime.

Again, as a former police officer, I am incredibly proud of what Chris Gill, Mick Schooley and the team up there have done and I would like to recognise them and all their support officers, as well as the Salisbury council and deputy mayor, Chad Buchanan, and some of the other councillors who devote quite a lot of their time to these sorts of programs. In conclusion, North on Target is a really innovative program. It has wide-reaching outcomes, and I do believe—and I will be having further discussions about this—that we should be looking at rolling out similar programs in schools across the north.

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